SANTA CRUZ >> In not-too-distant memory, the Santa Cruz Beach Flats neighborhood was best known for its crime, gang violence and poor housing conditions. Recent years have seen a gradual turnaround of that reputation, with family and young children able to find safe haven in new affordable housing and heightened police enforcement.

Now, ask a resident what defines the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk-adjacent 25-acre Beach Flats neighborhood, and the response is more likely than not to include some reference to family. During the day, the densely populated neighborhood is mostly quiet, with young residents walking purposely to and from work at Boardwalk or to neighborhood park spaces, relaxing on porches or entertaining children on play equipment.

As the neighborhood is able to move past some of the worst parts of its troubled history, residents have taken pride in the institutions that make the area “home,” such as neighborhood parks, gardens and murals. Which is why the relatively closely timed significant changes to a public mural depicting Latino cultural scenes and a community garden, both more than 20 years old, have touched a nerve.

Some are asking if the city is putting enough effort into community outreach to communicate such big upheavals.

According to Santa Cruz’s 2012 Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy focused on the Beach Flats and its neighboring Beach Hill and Lower Ocean neighborhoods, the area is home to the highest concentration of Latino residents in Santa Cruz, with 46 percent of its makeup Latino, compared to the overall citywide ratio of 17 percent. At the height of the neighborhood’s crime woes, a major community partnership was formed between nonprofit organizations, police, city leaders and residents.

Santa Cruz Police Department spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke said several police programs, such as the Basta and Pride programs, both still in existence today were first forged in response to fiery criminal confrontations in the Beach Flats.

“There’s still ongoing issues of gang violence or drugs, but the key to solving these issues or keeping a step ahead of that criminal activity is a very involved community. That’s what happened in Beach Flats — a very involved community,” Blaschke said. “Before, there was fear to call for help. Now, they’re able to advocate for themselves.”

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Beyond crime, residents also have become empowered to speak out on other issues.

Reyna Ruiz, a community organizer and Beach Flats resident since 1996, said that the community’s negative response toward the city’s 2014 repainting of a community-organized mural came from many feeling they were not sufficiently informed of the pending action. The mural depicted scenes of family and Latino culture, and was led by artist Victor Cervantes. While city Parks and Recreation Department staff held community meetings and posted fliers about the pending process, not all were clear that a new mural would completely replace the old, said Ruiz and others.

Ruiz is the past director for the former Beach Flats Community Center, now Nueva Vista Community Resource Center. She also served before that in a community liaison position for the city, through the community center.

“You can’t just assume you check the box and believe you’ve done the due diligence,” Ruiz said. “Sometimes taking shortcuts, in terms of public process, will cost the city some extra time and effort. When you’re working with a community that needs translation often, it takes time.”

The city is planning to launch a new outreach process to gather a more comprehensive concept for the replacement mural. A new city public art policy also is in the works through the city Economic Development Department, officials said.

Raymond Street resident Tenay Parks lives less than a block from the Nueva Vista Apartments, where the 1993 mural once spread up and down a long concrete wall, before being painted over in June 2014. Parks said she thought the city “just went and did it without anybody’s permission.” Bendix, down the street, said he saw numerous fliers posted about meetings on the mural and felt people had sufficient notice.

“That made a lot of people mad, because it’s been here a long time. It’s a cultural thing,” said Parks, a nine-year resident of the neighborhood. “There’s a lot of Mexicans who live here, and you just go and wipe it all out, it’s like part of their home. I’m not Mexican, but I’ve lived here a long time with them.”

Settlement agreement

This month, per a lawsuit settlement agreement, city leaders penned a formal letter of apology both to Victor Cervantes, the artist who led community efforts to create the mural that was whitewashed by the Parks and Recreation Department last year. The letter expanded the apology to include the whole of the Beach Flats neighborhood, noting that “The Beach Flats Mural reflected and represented the heritage and experience of the local Latino community in the Beach Flats area of Santa Cruz.”

“The city never intended the refurbishment project to disrespect Mr. Cervantes or Santa Cruz’s Latino residents and exclude their shared heritage,” the unsigned letter continued.

Councilman David Terrazas, one of several city officials who spoke with the Beach Flats community last year after protest over the mural’s whitewashing arose, said city leaders need to do better and will do better in working with the neighborhood. He said public input is especially critical when it comes to city cultural resources and public art.

“Moving forward, I am excited about our work to increase community engagement on future mural projects, as it will solidify the importance of community involvement, which is representative of our city, its residents and, in this case, reflective of the Beach Flats community,” Terrazas said.

Jardin de la comunidad

Similarly, despite apparent outreach efforts, news of the pending changes this fall to a 21-year-old community garden across the street from Park’s home to plot holders still managed to come as a surprise among the space’s most devout users. The property has been leased on a year-to-year basis to the city of Santa Cruz, who issued letters written in English and Spanish to garden plot holders in early spring of a pending closure and tentative plot relocation plan.

However, it was not until a former plot holder spoke with the gardeners in July and took a look at the letter that many in the neighborhood began taking the issue seriously and organizing to stop the change. More than 700 signatures have been collected in person and in an online petition posted on the beachflatsgarden.org website, organizers say.

This is at least the third time that the garden’s closure has been contemplated, though the first with a mandate from the property’s owner, rather than the city. The garden, owned by Seaside Co., the parent company of the nearby Boardwalk and a large property owner in the neighborhood, has told the city that it wants the property back in November.

Seaside Co. spokesman Kris Reyes said it was inaccurate to describe the garden as closing, as the company works Parks and Recreation Department officials, who manage the garden, to turn a piece of the existing garden an adjacent small flower garden into a replacement community space. Parks and Recreation officials were left with the task of alerting gardeners that they would be asked to move.

“We are continuing to offer new land to the city for use as a community garden, that they can pair with Poet’s Park so that the garden can continue,” Reyes said. “The garden is not closing. It’s being reconfigured with land being provided by the city and Seaside Co.”

Current and former garden users, volunteers, neighborhoods and even those outside the Beach Flats’ borders have taken up the issue. Parks and Recreation Director Dannettee Shoemaker said she has received visits from gardeners and calls from community members working with them, asking questions about the garden’s future. She is planning a community meeting in mid-September to answer concerns.

“In the past I feel Parks and Recreation worked well communicating with residents when we had the Beach Flats Community Center that was staffed by city employees,” Shoemaker said. “Since the economic downturn and the transfer of the Community Center to Community Bridges, I would say our communication is limited or on as-needed basis similar to other neighborhoods.”

Long short-term lease

Ruiz, the former community center organizer, said she has seen the garden turn from a place people dumped their trash to a thriving piece of the community’s essence. Her father is one of the longtime plot holders, dating back to the garden’s beginnings, Ruiz said.

“We are surrounded by cars and parking lots. This neighborhood has worked hard to improve the neighborhood,” Ruiz said. “Having that patch of garden, I hope, also contributes to our well-being. It’s sort of a little oasis of green in the midst of all this smog that we have to inhale at the height of tourist season.”

Resident Bendix, whose family includes five children, said he had some anxiety about the city’s plans to accommodate the garden elsewhere in the neighborhood. He said gardeners should be happy for the time they were given to use grown on the property.

“What I don’t want to see is them put the garden here and take the park out,” Bendix said, gesturing toward playground equipment, picnic benches and open space adjacent to the fence-enclosed flower garden, which collectively make up Poet’s Park. “There already is a garden but nobody uses it. It’s really, really tiny. Right now it’s just a bunch of weeds, because it’s a bunch of annuals and perennials.

“It was supposed to be an overflow for people who couldn’t get into the main garden. But nobody maintains it, it’s pretty sad,” Bendix said.

About the Author

Jessica A. York covers Santa Cruz city hall, Santa Cruz City Schools, Soquel Creek Water District and homeless issues for the Sentinel. She has been a working journalist, on both coasts, since 2004. Reach the author at jyork@santacruzsentinel.com
or follow Jessica A. on Twitter: @reporterjess.